Spiting Yourself

I know someone who was passed over for a promotion that everyone assumed he would get. He’d earned it. He deserved it. He had been doing that job without the promotion for well over a year. But when the time came, someone else got hired. He even had to train that person.

Needless to say, he’s very bitter about the situation. I can’t blame him. I would be, too. But what he did next surprised me. When the next promotion became available, he didn’t apply for it. When I asked him about it, he said, “I want them to have to come to me and ask me why.”

Uh…what? So, basically, you just cut yourself off from a chance at a promotion in the hopes that you’re going to have an opportunity to make a grand speech which is supposed to make them grovel? You may as well have said, “Yeah, I cut off my nose so that my enemies would ask me why.”

What he fails to realize is that if they do bother to ask (and they most assuredly won’t), they’ll phrase it like this: “Why did you cut off your nose, you idiot?”

Being self-destructive to spite others is the most stupid move anyone could make. For example, I know several people who started smoking to piss off their parents. Well, their parents aren’t going to be the ones to get the chemotherapy. Risking your life to get someone’s attention is also a fool’s errand.

What my friend did by not applying for that job is the equivalent of a four year old saying, “I’m gonna hold my breath until I turn blue!” Well, have fun, kid. Hope you don’t crack open your skull when you pass out.

Author: The View from a Drawbridge

I have been a bridgetender since 2001, and gives me plenty of time to think and observe the world. View all posts by The View from a Drawbridge